HCC
Chosen to Participate in Initiative to Improve Student Success in
Community Colleges
HOUSTON, TX (July 19, 2010) – Houston Community
College is one of the nineteen community colleges from five states
chosen to participate in the first phase of the Initiative to Improve
Student Success in Community Colleges. Five foundations, Carnegie
Corporation of New York, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Lumina Foundation and the Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, are making a two-year, $14
million investment towards improving student success in community
colleges. All five foundations share a commitment to expanding college
readiness and furthering student retention and graduation rates.
The first phase will focus on mathematics and college
readiness. Up to 60 percent of students enrolling in U.S. community
colleges must take at least one remedial or developmental course to
build their basic academic skills. The vast majority of community
college students referred to developmental mathematics will not finish
their required courses and many leave college for good.
The $14 million initiative, funded by all five
foundations for two years, will start with the development of two newly
designed mathematics pathways. The Statistics Pathway (Statway) will
move developmental math students to and through transferable college
statistics in one year. The Mathematical Literacy Pathway (Mathway) will
be a new one semester course, replacing elementary and intermediate
algebra, followed by completion of a college-level mathematics course.
HCC will be instrumental in the planning of the Statway curriculum.
As a result of the successes HCC achieved in improving
our developmental education programs through the Achieving the Dream
Initiative and a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for
participation in the Developmental Education Initiative (DEI), HCC was
invited by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to
participate in the Statway project.
Sixty four percent of HCC students require
developmental education each semester. Students benefiting from the
program will be mathematically prepared to succeed in further academic
study and/or academic pursuits, regardless of limitation that they may
have in language, literacy and mathematics and their ability, on entry,
to navigate college.
About HCC
HCC is one of the country’s largest
singularly-accredited, open-admission, community colleges offering
associate degrees, certificates, workforce training and lifelong
learning opportunities for 70,000 students each semester. HCC is
composed of six colleges that serve the greater Houston area’s diverse
communities by preparing individuals to live and work in today’s
increasingly international and technological society. To learn more go
to hccs.edu.
